Pussy Riot's defense insists verdicts to band members should be cancelled amid absence of crime
MOSCOW. April 4 (Interfax) - The defense of the Pussy Riot punk band, previously convicted to two years for a stunt in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, was not satisfied with the ruling of the Moscow City court presidium, which cut the verdict by one month.
"We are not satisfied with the ruling of the Moscow City Court presidium, because we think that the sentences for Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina should be cancelled due to the lack of a crime," the girls' lawyer Dmitry Dinze told Interfax on Friday.
The presidium ruling could be appealed - the complaint on the sentence of the Pussy Riot members is currently being considered by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Dinze said.
Excluding the motive of hatred towards a social group from the actions committed by the Pussy Riot members is insignificant, the attorney said.
"The main characteristic of a social group is the vulnerability of the people, who are part of it, in society, for instance, disabled persons or pensioners. The 'Orthodox believers' group as a recognizable social group does not exist and the fact of its existence does not have a legal basis," Dinze said.
The Moscow City Court presidium lightened the sentence to Pussy Riot members, who have been convicted to two years, earlier on Friday. According to the ruling, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina are sentenced to one year eleven months in prison, and another Pussy Riot member Samutsevich to one year and eleven months of a suspended sentence. The Moscow City Court presidium has ruled to exclude from the sentence the phrasing that the convicts' actions were aimed "to insight hatred or enmity."
